Club for Growth President Chris Chocola, a former Indiana congressman, announced his retirement Thursday from the conservative outside group that often serves as a thorn in the side of Republican leadership.

Former Rep. David M. McIntosh, also a Hoosier State Republican, will take over for Chocola, who led the group for six years. “It was an honor to serve as the head of the Club for Growth and I’m proud to have served during a time when we made unprecedented advances in our mission of promoting economic freedom,” Chocola said in a release.

McIntosh will take the helm of the group — which supports many fiscally conservative Republicans often aligned with the tea party faction — after a lackluster 2014 cycle. Many of the club's endorsed candidates lost primary and general election challenges. Most notably, state Sen. Chris McDaniel failed to unseat Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., in an expensive primary and runoff earlier this year.

“The Club for Growth is known as America’s premier organization for fighting big-government liberals in both parties, and I’m looking forward to building on that reputation,” McIntosh said in the release.

“Chris has done a fantastic job leading the Club for Growth and I’m sorry to see him leave as President,” Toomey said in the release. “Under his leadership, the Club has flourished and the prospects for a more free and prosperous America have brightened. I am excited that David McIntosh has agreed to take the reins and I know he’ll continue the great work that the Club does to advocate for pro-growth policy in Washington.”